Reddit’s average daily active unique users increased 12 percent year over year in the third quarter, while CEO Steve Huffman indicated that the company wants to rely less on search referrals and focus more on logged-in users and people accessing Reddit through its apps. The company has been expanding login and app requirements across its services, changes it says will improve its understanding of user activity, help address AI scraping and changing search habits, and make the platform more attractive to advertisers and investors.
“Logged-in users and app DAUq are our most valuable users and they are our primary focus,” Huffman wrote.
Reddit has been testing mandatory desktop login requirements since at least August, according to one user report and another report.
More login and app requirements
The desktop login requirement is one of several changes Reddit has made in recent years to expand its website and mobile-app user base while making it easier to track activity on the platform.
Earlier this year, Reddit began testing a requirement for mobile-web users to use one of its mobile apps. The company plans to expand that testing.
“Currently, only about 13% of eligible mobile web users are seeing app conversion prompts, so this has room to grow,” Huffman said.
As of July, Reddit required users to log in to access Old.Reddit.com. More recently, the company blocked access to Old Reddit for users who had not logged in during the previous six months.
Reddit also effectively shut down most third-party apps in 2024 by making access to its APIs expensive.
Reddit says these changes will make it easier to understand who uses the service and why. The company also says they will help it manage issues such as AI scraping and changing search habits.
The changes could help Reddit measure the effectiveness of its advertising and gain more insight into user activity, potentially making the platform more appealing to advertisers and investors.
Reddit reported third-quarter revenue of $895 million, up 53 percent year over year, and net income of $283 million, up 74 percent year over year.
Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica’s parent company Condé Nast, is Reddit’s largest shareholder.
Source: arstechnica.com
